Rapunzel Untangled by Cindy C. Bennett

November 25, 2014

Rapunzel is not your average teenager.For one thing, she has a serious illness that keeps her inside the mysterious Gothel Mansion. And for another, her hair is 15 feet long. Not to mention that she’s also the key to ultimately saving the world from certain destruction. But then she meets a boy named Fane, who changes all she has ever known, and she decides to risk everything familiar to find out who she really is.Filled with romance, adventure, and mystery, Rapunzel Untangled is one story you won’t want to put down. Discover the true meaning of love and friendship in this modern twist to the classic fairytale.

My Thoughts:First of all, this was adorable. And clean. It was just good, clean, grinning throughout the first half of the book, fun. I mean, it’s a Rapunzel retelling, right? Set in the modern day. Hard to go wrong. Only a couple of things were weird. I’ll get to that.Rapunzel has only had contact with one person for her entire life: her mother. She is completely sheltered and locked away from everything. So we know she’s going to be very naive and ignorant about the world. But she’s Rapunzel, so it’s endearing. Fane, though. I don’t know. Here’s a teenage guy who’s grown up in the information age with all its warnings about technology and internet safety and whatever else. I’m expected to believe that a random unknown person requests his friendship on facebook, he accepts, then agrees to meet said random person without any kind of real information or even a picture. Sounds unsafe, to say the least. And dumb. And then there’s the whole thing about Rapunzel having never met anyone else at all and falling in love with the one person she knows besides her mother. Real healthy. And then they’re both pretty cavalier about Rapunzel’s health when they sneak out and go places where other people and their germs will be. They’re all, “I could die from this but let’s go do it anyway.” I guess I understand the mentality but that doesn’t make it not dumb.But it was cute and I did grin through the entire first half of the novel. And then it got weird. Lots of creepy witchcraftery and seances and just dark, weird stuff. It was handled in a lighter way, you might say, so that the overall feel of the book didn’t get too dark but it was just weird. Maybe a bit cheesy. And then the ending made me roll my eyes a lot. Rapunzel is naive, yes, but she just did something really stupid at the end there. And if you found out something really terrible about your mother and then confirmed that terrible thing would you not just run away and call the cops? Why did Fane not suggest that? Then we could have avoided the weird supernatural ending there.Anyway, it was a fast, clean, sweet read and I would have no qualms recommending it to anyone.Sexual Content: Mild (some kissing)Language: NoneViolence: Moderate (just the final scenes at the end, there)Drugs/Alcohol: None